GMG - Las Vegas Weekly

September 4, 2014

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A& E | screen
F I L M
School daze
Innocence is a lethargic teen horror story
Jane Mendelsohn's 2000 novel Innocence has
been praised for its sensitive and nuanced portrayal
of teenage emotions, but you'd never guess that from
watching Hilary Brougher's lifeless film adaptation.
The lurking evil that Mendelsohn keeps ambiguous is
very real in Brougher's film, although it takes a frus-
tratingly long time to emerge. Before that, teenage
protagonist Beckett Warner (Sophie Curtis) does a lot
of moping around her new school, an upscale all-girls
academy outside Manhattan.
Something is obviously
not right at Beckett's school,
which is run by a cabal of
suspiciously placid, fashion-
ably composed women,
whose weekly book-club
meetings hide something
sinister. School nurse Pamela
(Kelly Reilly) is the eerily calm
ringleader, and she soon
starts romancing Beckett's novelist father (Linus
Roache), a recent widower. Beckett sees flashes of
horrors as she's drawn more deeply into the school's
secrets, but neither Curtis nor Brougher do much
to make the situation feel truly menacing. When the
supernatural threats finally show themselves, they're
disappointingly pedestrian and cheesy, and just as
disappointingly easy to defeat. Whatever allegorical
potential existed in Mendelsohn's novel is lost in favor
of generic teenage petulance and worn-out horror-
movie devices. –Josh Bell
T V
Seven-
year
itch
Five burning questions
going into Season 5 of
Boardwalk Empire
Boardwalk Empire's upcom-
ing final season promises to
be full of changes, especially
given that seven years have
passed since the end of Season
4, dumping us square in the
middle of the Depression. So
many questions ...
1. Is there any hope for Eli
and Nucky? When last we saw
Eli Thompson (Shea Whigham),
he'd betrayed his brother (Steve
Buscemi) and became a fugitive
after brutally murdering a fed-
eral agent. Something tells us
Thanksgiving dinners may not
be in this family's future.
2. What's become of
Eli's son, Will? Will (Ben
Rosenfield) was a focal point of
Season 4, as his father went to
insane lengths to protect him
after a college scandal. Nucky
stepped in as his benefactor,
and with Eli all but out of the
picture, the ambitious Will
seemed primed for a Michael
Corleone-style transformation.
3. Will Al Capone's rise
to power be complete?
After the attack on syndicate
head Johnny Torrio (Greg
Antonacci), Capone (Stephen
Graham) was poised to inher-
it it all. So seven years later,
where, exactly, will he be—
not to mention his conflicted
but extremely capable lackey,
former FBI agent Nelson Van
Alden (Michael Shannon)?
4. How does Chalky White
respond after the loss of his
daughter? It shouldn't take
Chalky (Michael K. Williams)
long to figure out that Nucky
was behind the failed assas-
sination attempt on Valentin
Narcisse (Jeffrey Wright) that
led to his daughter's accidental
death. And we all know that
Chalky doesn't let things go.
5. How are we supposed
to go on when so many of
our favorite characters keep
dying? It was bad enough los-
ing Jimmy (Michael Pitt) a few
seasons ago; now we've lost
war vet Richard Harrow (Jack
Huston), and we hear crime
boss Arnold Rothstein (Michael
Stuhlbarg) will be absent from
Season 5—because the char-
acter he plays actually died
during that seven-year period.
Damn you, history! –Ken Miller
> shArp-drEssEd mAn
Buscemi ponders his
character's uncertain future.
aaccc
InnOCEnCE
Sophie Curtis, Kelly
Reilly, Linus Roache.
Directed by Hilary
Brougher. Rated
PG-13. Opens Friday.
BOArdWALK EmpIrE
Sundays, 9 p.m., HBO;
premieres September 7.
115 E. Tropicana • www.hooTErscasinohoTEl.com
$4 Miller lite
& Coronas
$3
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